Eva Stachniak’s novel about the Russian Imperial Court and the rise of Catherine the Great reminds us that while we are trapped by human nature, it is not always our best attribute — and certainly not when power is at stake. The White Palace hurls us into a dark world where the ruthless Empress Elizabeth uses sweetness like a club. She promises before stealing the throne from the infant Ivan VI in 1741 that she wouldn’t put prisoners to death. But, as the narrator tells us, she fails to mention the loss of tongues or ears, “backs torn to meaty shreds” or prisoners nailed to boards.

The narrator is one of two women at the centre of this sweeping saga of 18th-century Russia. Vavara is the daughter (born Barbara) of a Polish bookbinder who comes to St. Petersburg to work in the imperial library. When her father dies, she is put in the care of the Empress and, an exceptionally clever girl, under the tutelage of Count Bestuzhev, chancellor and spymaster. He teaches his mastery of deception.

The second protagonist is Sophie, the pretty young daughter of a minor German prince whom Elizabeth brings to court as a candidate to wed her nephew Peter. Sophie seems sweet and retiring, out of her league and reliant upon an insider like Vavara. Yet she makes canny decisions. She learns Russian and insists on converting to the Russian Orthodox Church, thereby joining the imperial line when she marries Peter and becomes Grand Duchess Catherine.

Lives are filled with intrigue and treachery. Catherine and Vavara become friends, although the latter is helpless to stop Elizabeth’s cruelty. The Empress takes Catherine’s baby son as her own, without allowing her even to hold him. Catherine worries about dangerous lies about herself whispered in corridors and, in massive understatement, Vavara tells her: “The Russians don’t give their trust very freely. They watch you for a very long time.”

Apparently not long enough with Catherine. Even Vavara who has prepped her protégé so well, is caught off guard. She loves two people above all others, Catherine and her little girl, Darya. She will learn her beloved duchess is not as meek she imagines her to be. Stachniak is such a wonderful writer and the pace of her novel so exciting that even giving up this clue about Catherine’s abilities steals nothing from the book. Readers know she has to become Catherine the Great somehow.

The Priest, The Witch and the Poltergeist

By Barbara Wade Rose

Createspace, 385 pages, $15.28

Barbara Wade Rose’s novel, The Priest, the Witch & the Poltergeist, based on the true story of the 1851 Cideville witch trial in France in 1851, is full of twists. The witch is a man named Felix Thorel who puts a hex on two teen boys in retribution for the jailing of his coven leader. The hex produces unbearable sounds at the village parsonage that almost drive the local priest Father Jean Tinel out of his mind. He goes to the farm where the witch works as a shepherd and, failing to have the hex lifted, beats him.

To paraphrase, Tinel tells the priest, “I’ll see you in court,” and sues him. It’s a strange tale that intrigued Wade Rose when she read about the case in a dentist’s waiting room, perhaps anticipating the sound of the drill. If so, it was worth it for the fascinating story she unearthed.

Linda Diebel is a Star reporter and non-fiction writer

Jack Batten’s most recent crime novel is Take Five.

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